Stay with me
by Scorpionnumber1
Summary: A tragedy hits Scorpion worse than every before. The mission goes south and leaves a shattered Walter to deal with the consequences. Along the way mistakes are made and Walter is put the limit emotionally. How will he cope? And how will he be able to look after his loved ones when he can't even look after himself?
1. Chapter 1

**Stay with me**

 _I'm back! I know that I haven't written in quite a while but school and exams have just been the death of me. I know that I have also left Moments for a really long time but I promise that I am working on it and should have it uploaded soon._

 _Before you start reading this I would just like to warn that this story deals with major character death and other quite powerful and saddening topics which is why it is rated a T. Please take this into account and if you decide that it is too depressing for you then don't upset yourself and just stop reading, I know that it may not be for everyone._

 _Final warning is that this story will be an emotional rollercoaster so get ready for the ride!_

 _P.S. If you have decided to continue reading the flash backs are written in italics._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Scorpion or any of its characters. I'm just a massive fan that likes to write!_

It all happened so fast. The sound of tooting truck horns blearing in the distance echoed in his ear. His eyes still saw the flashes of car headlights and the force of impact pushing onto his right side. Ambulance sirens, police flashlights and public screams were the first and last things that he can remember before once again blacking out. Now it was a faint monitor that alerted him of the surroundings. His lower body covered by a crisp white sheet, his fingers trapped in place by wires that seemed to have no end or beginning. His vision was once again drifting, pushing his eyelids to shut, but he protested. He shook his head and ignored the throbbing in his pain just so he could withstand the need to pass out once again. He used his mind to focus on the constant yet perfectly in time beeping of the heart monitor, when he remembered… where is she? Felling a sudden rush of adrenaline begin to pulse through his tired body, he gathered the strength to lift himself up. This task wasn't as easy as it seemed due to the bandage on his right arm and pinching pain of his side, but he eventually succeeded.

"Jesus Walter get back down you shouldn't be moving this soon" exclaimed Toby as he set the cup of coffee that he had walked in with onto a nearby stand and rushed over to his friend to help him back down into the previous stance.

"What the hell were you thinking? Didn't the pain stop you from thinking that this was a bad idea?"

"I need to see where she is. I need to see if she's ok" Walter answered whilst hopelessly trying to withstand Toby's actions.

The strength left in him was not enough and finally Toby succeeded with Walter laying on his back as the shrink took the nearest chair and firmly positioned himself onto it. The behaviourist then took the seaming cup of coffee, placed it on his lap, adjusted his hat and leaned towards the helpless friend in the bed.

"You'll be able to see her soon, just wait until the doctor comes to see you and then I could take you there myself so just be patient" he said with a serious and slightly concerned face before leaning back in his chair and taking a sip of the warm beverage.

Walter was just about to ask further questions but the doctor strode in with a nurse swiftly behind, which diverted Walter's attention to him instead.

"Good evening mister O'Brien. I had heard that you woke up and I wanted to do a few checks on you as soon as possible. Can you tell me if any part of your body is currently hurting?"

"Should it?"

"Walter, stop being a condescending jerk and answer the doctor properly" warned Toby before flashing the doctor an apologetic nod.

"Yes, my head is slightly hurting and my side feels funny when I move but aside from that, no" Walter replied in a less than amused tone.

"Well then if you are lucky we will be able to get you off of bedrest quite soon although you will have to be on a wheelchair for a little while."

The doctor wrote a few things down on his clipboard and signalled to the nurse to follow him as he prepared to leave the room. His journey came to a halt as he heard Walter inclining if he had any information on Paige. To this he replied "we will know soon enough" and left the room.

At last, Walter gave in to exhaustion and drifted into a rough sleep, missing the nurses tightening a bandage around his belly and unplugging a few devices from his tube infested hands. As he woke up he noticed the resting head of Sylvester on top of his bed and Cabe's figure lurking in a corner reading something off of his phone. Sunlight was creeping in from the small gaps in the windows that weren't covered by curtains.

"Welcome back, kiddo" uttered the Homeland Agent as he made his way to Walter's bed and instantly pushed him upwards so that he could sit whilst propped on pillows that were too thin and barely did their assigned job.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Only two hours, fifty seven minutes and four seconds" mumbled Sylvester as he too sat up and begun whipping his tired eyes.

The agent sent a fainted smile towards the human calculator and resumed his focus to the injured man once more. After making a bit more small talk, mostly about Walter's wellbeing and so forth, they all agreed to help him onto the wheelchair that a nurse had dragged in not long ago. In one swift and calculated motion Walter was comfortably situated in the seat as awkward silence filled the room until Cabe stepped in with addressing the matter that had been on everyone's minds but not once dared to be put forward, until now.

"So… do you remember what happened?"

Did he remember? How could he forget? That night would have served as a nightmare to anyone unfortunate enough to experience it. The sole reason why his sleep had been so short was due to the haunting sound, visions and any other sort of memories dragging him forcefully to that night of regret.

That's when he realised were it was that he had to be. Without alerting anyone of his plans, he grabbed the wheel with his barely harmed left hand and pushed it forwards through the ajar doors. Ignoring the shouts of his team mates he focused on gaining speed and scanning the nearly empty corridor for a doctor that could give him accurate directions. Just then two figures emerged from a corner, one in what seemed a hat and the other with a brown satchel around her shoulder. When they saw Walter escaping from the shouts of the two men behind him, they increased their speed and grasped the wheelchair. Cabe and Sly caught up swiftly.

"I need to see Paige. Let me go, God damn it!"

Before anyone could say anything, Walter's doctor swept in from behind a door most probably leading to his office and walked over to his patient who repeated the exact same words to the doctor as to his friends a few minutes ago. Unexpectedly to Walter, the facial expression of the doctor changed drastically from calm to concerned and apologetic. His gaze drifted from the patient to the people accompanying him to which they all shook their heads as a response. It worried Walter why they seemed to be communicating through their minds and why were they all avoiding his inquiry of seeing Paige, so he turned once again to commence his mission to find her in this godforsaken hospital. However his efforts were once more halted by the medic who turned the wheelchair to face him and begun to speak.

"I am very sorry to be the bearer of bad news Mr O'Brien but, Miss Dineen passed away not long after you fell asleep last night. We tried whatever in our power to help her but our efforts weren't enough. I am truly sorry for your loss" with that he turned to look at the rest of the team members and slowly walked away in the direction of other patients, leaving them all surrounding the wheelchair in complete silence.

At first he didn't understand. It just drifted over his head and didn't register. Then it hit him harder than a bullet to the chest. It burrowed itself deeper and deeper, ripping and tearing his organs into nothing but mere shreds. He lost all feel of his legs and arms as if he was about to disappear into thin air. It felt as if his whole head was going into over drive from every little bit of EQ now torturing his entire brain.

"Walter? Walter, can you hear me? Walter!"

…

He didn't speak. He just stayed silent. Silent when Cabe took him to the garage. Silent whilst he was recovering. Silent when he left the wheelchair and only had his bandaged arm as a reminder for that night. Toby tried various ways to get him to talk and recover mentally but nothing helped. The only person that Walter wanted to talk to was Paige. Yet she was the only one that he couldn't communicate with. He begun to burry himself in numbers, searching for answers as to why it wasn't him, why it was Paige.

…

 _"What are you working on there, Hun?" she whispered into his ear before kissing a trail of kisses along his neck and onto his shoulders._

 _"Just a little work for a new competition that I entered recently" replied Walter putting down his pen and spinning his chair to face her._

 _"And what competition would that be?"_

 _"The Leon Siwerski competition for the most developed satellite. It's a bit like the Karman Line Prize but slightly more advanced and well has a pay-out of 20 million. I plan to put that money to the MS researchers and help them to make sure that no one has to suffer like my sister."_

 _"Walter" she stops kissing him and instead wraps her arms around his shoulders "That's… that's amazing. Your EQ levels are going up!" she replied playfully._

 _"Paige, my EQ has been through the roof since we started dating four months ago. Haven't you noticed?"_

 _"Oh I have Walter… I have" and with that she kissed his lips tenderly which he returned almost immediately with a smile decorating his lips._

 _I'm so sorry! I know I am horrible for writing this but I have high hopes for this one. The next chapter will tell you more about what happened and how she died (but not in overly graphic detail)._

 _Please let me know if you like it and if you have any suggestions in the reviews or by PMing me!_ _:)_


	2. Chapter 2

_Ok so I was going to post this chapter before I left for my holiday (which is the reason why I haven't updated in like a month and not because I forgot about this story) but it wasn't finished so I didn't, sorry_ _L_ _. I decided to treat you guys a bit coz this was initially going to be a lot shorter but you defiantly need a reward for sticking with this evil story._

 _(The italics are once again flashbacks)_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Scorpion or any of its characters. I'm just a massive fan who likes to write._

* * *

"Walter, snap out of it! Come on pal we need ya!"

Toby felt as if he was screaming to a dead man but he knew that it had to be done. It had been a month now, since the accident. Walter hadn't spoken a single word and he had become lost in thought more and more frequently. Everyone started to make assumptions that Walter was in danger of going down the rabbit hole, so they decided to give it one more try.

"Listen, I know you're grieving. Your mind is not capable of dealing with such large doses of EQ that it is simply restricting you from functioning, but you have to plough through and overcome it. Here. We think that you should use this to make sense of what happened back there" the shrink stretched out his hand, showing Walter a journal.

The motionless man didn't even look at it so the behaviourist set it down on the table and concluded speaking.

"I want you to write everything in it. No one will see what you have written. No one will judge. Just pick up a pen and write whatever comes into your head. Every though, opinion or meaningless word. You don't want to talk, fine. Just write. Please Walter."

Awaiting a simple nod or gesture, Toby sighed when he didn't receive it and walked off. Walter heard his footsteps echo down the staircase. He looked at the journal. It was an A4 book with a simple brown cover and the words 'Walter's journal' stained on it in a thick black marker. He reached out his left hand and grabbed it. What good would this do? This is pathetic. Deciding to ignore Toby's pleading, he tossed it across the room and watched it fly away. A small piece of paper dropped out of the book and landed face down slightly further than the journal itself. Interested, Walter got up and went over to see what the paper contained. On it was the message 'Don't do it for yourself, do it for Paige'. Still somewhat confused he knelt beside it and flipped it over to see it reveal a picture of the whole cyclone celebrating their first Christmas together. Megan was embracing Sly with a squinted smile, Happy was in the process of removing Toby's new hat as he was trying to grab her hips and pose, Ralph was held up by Cabe whilst holding mistletoe over Walter and Paige. Paige. She looked more beautiful than ever in that picture. Her hair was still slightly decorated by fake snow, her hair carefully combed perfectly underneath a Santa hat. Her eyes full of life and laughter. Her smile glimmering. He reached out to stroke the glistening, soft paper. He remembered how his fingers used to trail between her honey hairs. How her smile was so contagious that no one was able to be sad around her. How she laughed, cried and snored softly when laying on his chest in the night.

Something pinched his eye. Then tears begun to drip. Just like the time when he cried over Megan. But now he was alone, with no one to comfort him and no one to be strong for.

…

Toby entered Walter's upstairs room with a sandwich only to find the man hunched on the floor, clenching the photograph silently. The shrink swore beneath his breath and sprinted back down the stairs as quickly as he could. He entered the kitchen where all of the remaining geniuses and Cabe were sitting and slammed the plate firmly on the table.

"He's just getting worse. Great idea to throw in that picture, Hap" exclaimed Toby in a sarcastic manner before slouching onto the nearest chair.

"I though it would help. That time I found the picture of my parents, it motivated me to go and find my father than wait and do nothing" she shot back with a saddened tone.

"Maybe we should tell him the full truth" suggested Sly who was in the process of solving the fifth Rubik Cube on the table to relieve some stress.

"Are you mad? Walter's falling apart as it is. If we tell him all that we know we could loose him all together! His brain isn't capable of dealing with this much emotion at once and if we throw another bombshell at him, well, his brain could shut down fully" replied Toby in a defensive way.

"Well we're going to have to tell him one day" they shot back.

"And we will. Just let him deal with this first" reassured the behaviourist.

…

The journal slammed down on the desk. Walter's hands were shaking slightly but he opened the cover with ease, slumped on the desk chair and grasped a freshly sharpened pencil. First staring at the blank page as if he was trying to decipher a code that was written on it, he eventually begun. Not doing it for himself, but for Paige, the pencil started to glide on the page smoothly. The gentle sound of the pencil juxtaposed what was being written…

…

 _"Walter" exclaimed Paige as she saw the man gliding down the stairs from his loft room, with her voice sounding weirdly relieved._

 _197 looked up from the stash of papers that he was clenching and smiled towards the liaison. Her baby pink lips and bouncing hair stunned him as usual. Ever since they started dating he was finding it hard to believe that he was lucky enough to be the man to kiss her senseless and the only one to combe his fingers through her waves. They shared a quick peck at the bottom of the stairs before he raced to his desk and started to sift through the documents. Paige kissed Ralph goodbye before the genius waved to the others and walked out to his carpool. His mother then strode over to her boyfriend's desk and sat down on the corner of it. Walter looked up to see her beaming smile and eyes staring deeply into his own._

 _"What?"_

 _"Well I have a little something to tell you" she replied mysteriously with the smile getting bigger and bigger._

 _"Go on"_

 _"Well-"_

 _Whatever she was about to say was interrupted with the slam of the garage doors and Cabe storming in with a file in his hand. He announced as always that they had an important case from Homeland and the whole team gathered around him._

 _"Is it ok if you tell me later?" questioned Walter in a calm voice as he placed his hand on her back._

 _"Yup, sure. Let's go and see what this case is about"_

 _She gave him a reassuring smile to which he answered with a nod and they went over to join the others._

 _The case that Cabe explained seemed fairly simple. All they had to do was break in to a suspect's house before retrieving his computer and any other necessary sources that would confirm that he is the one that committed the murder of a University student the previous day. They all hunched over to discuss the ways in which they would approach the case and after a few minutes were ready with all the equipment necessary._

 _Happy jumped to the task of getting them in flawlessly in under a minute and Sylvester made quick work of hacking the computers and transferring it all onto a portable pen drive whilst memorising almost every word. Meanwhile Toby profiled the surroundings while Walter and Happy set about in search of safes, hard drives or any other information. That's when it started to go south._

 _"Shh. Did you guys hear that?" whispered Paige as she tip toed over to the window that seemed closest to the noise._

 _Her alarmed voice halted the typing sound from the computer and turned the attention of all of the geniuses. They all heard it. The sound of a car pulling up in the drive way. The translator uncovered the window ever so slightly to see a young man, with a phone by his ear which he seemed to be communicating through, run over to the garage of the house and then quickly exit it whilst tucking away a small gun into his jackets pocket._

 _Paige signalled to the others that he was driving away and as soon as she felt that he was far enough, she told them all that she had witnessed. Happy replied with a "not good" to which Toby followed with an upfront curse._

 _"Ok so whoever he was talking to must have set him up with another job which resulted in him coming back to retrieve the gun. On the bright side, we just saved ourselves a lot of time because we can be pretty sure that he is the one that killed our student."_

 _"Thank you Toby for that optimistic statement but now we have a much bigger problem than the Uni student. That dude just went to kill some more people" fired back Happy._

 _"Exactly, that's why I am going to go after him while you guys finish up here and make your way back to the garage. Happy come with me, I'm going to need you to start that red car over there for me" announced Walter before pointing to the car that he was planning on stealing to put another of his incredibly risky plans into action._

 _"I'm going with you."_

 _"Paige I'll be fine. You should probably go with the others."_

 _"No, Walter. That man has a gun and he clearly doesn't care who he kills. I want to go with you. I will go with you."_

 _He knew he couldn't argue anymore so he simply nodded his head and exited the building after Happy. The mechanic got the geniuses desired car started in no time and departed to meet up with the rest of her team mates. The remaining two jumped into the car and followed in hot pursuit of the man. Cabe's assistance was necessary to track the man and with his help they were on his tail as he zoomed through the streets of LA._

 _"There! I see him!"_

 _Walter's foot pushed down on the accelerator with all his might…_

 _It happened too fast. Too fast. The man they were following slowed down but it was already too late. The screeching sounds of breaks and glass smashing was enough to alert everyone of what has happened. Paige couldn't hear Cabe's worried voice over her com device, asking if they were ok and what happened. She couldn't feel the weight of the car force itself down her body. She couldn't smell the summer breeze drifting by as if nothing had happened. She had no way of possibly knowing that her whole system was shutting down one by one._

…

The pencil tip snapped at the end of the page, smudging part of the writing with its lead. The pencil flew across the floor along with the book that was now filled with every little detail that Walter could remember. The man caught his head in his palms and begun rubbing it furiously, pleading that all of thoughts as well as the events of that day disappear faster than they occurred. He killed her. It was all his fault. He allowed her to go with him. He didn't put in more of a fight. He let his focus of catching the killer over cloud his judgement to not go too fast. He was the one who ignored the promise that he made to Paige on the first day that they met. "I won't let anything happen to you". Lies. His fault. All his fault.

* * *

 _So I'm not 100% sure about this onebut let me know what you thought Nextof it anyway. chapter is the funeral and a bit of a plot twist is coming up that I kind of hinted in this chapter but I'm not going to say any more…_


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